Naturally, I only fell in love with yesterday’s Top 10 Tuesday topic after I already had a post underway. Still, the books kept coming into my head until I had a list. That list will probably be different in a month – but here’s a starting point, books that were different and that stuck in my head for months and years after reading them.
Top 10 Tuesday is hosted by the wonderful folks at the Broke and the Bookish.
A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty (YA)
Ambassador by William Alexander (middle grade)
Ash by Malinda Lo (YA)
Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (adult)
Firethorn by Sarah Micklem (adult)
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (adult)
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (YA)
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (YA)
Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay (middle grade)
Sunshine by Robin McKinley (YA/adult)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (middle grade)
Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor (middle grade/YA)
What books would you add to this list?
alibrarymama 
Oh, good choices. I would add anything by Frances Hardinge. Chime, by Franny Billingsley. Ancillary Justice et sequels. The Fifth Season. When You Reach Me.
What a great topic for a list!
I almost put Ancillary Justice on the list! And I thought about Hardinge, but I think I haven’t yet read her books that I’ve heard about as such, though I now have Face like Glass in my tbr pile. Interesting that both you and Brandy are recommending Chime… perhaps I should read it!
Yessssssss, A Corner of White. I also love A Wrinkle in Time and Zahrah the Windseeker. Excellent choices here. I am still trying to figure out how Dianna Wynne Jones writes so many unique stories. I mean, really.
That question of DWJ’s ideas is a good… though I don’t have any answers.
Saffy’s Angel! I love the Casson Family books so much.
I haven’t read The Curse of Chalion yet. I’ve only explored Bujold’s Vorkosigan books so far.
I love the religion she’s created in the Five Gods series… and also that so many of them have older outcast characters for heros.
Since I’ve been overwhelmed by/burnt out on/avoiding reading for myself the past few years, it’s the unique books that capture me back in– you have quite a few here that I love absolutely for their uniqueness!
So many people with good taste are Bujold fans and I haven’t read any yet– I get scared off by the length of grown-up books– but the vote of Uniqueness here definitely helps.
Oh, as for what I’d add to the list, definitely Libba Bray: Going Bovine or Beauty Queens especially. Catch-22 is totally unlike anything else I’ve ever read, too, though I wouldn’t think to put it on a top ten of FAVORITES. And Douglas Adams.
I’m so sorry you’ve been feeling burnt out on books! Maybe some good recommendations would get you back in the swing of reading? 😉 Lois McMaster Bujold’s Five Gods world has only three books, all with different characters: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/lois-mcmaster-bujold/ I’d start with the Curse of Chalion, which I also found as an audiobook through Overdrive. I definitely agree about Going Bovine and Douglas Adams, though I didn’t read Beauty Queens.
Beauty Queens is more, um, user-friendly? than Going Bovine, though not the same level of brilliant. An easier read, I guess? Riotously funny and off the wall and just one of those that makes you wonder what on earth is going on in her brain and how can I get it in mine.
Frances Hardinge, especially The Lost Conspiracy (UK title Gullstruck Island)
Ooh! i hadn’t heard of the Lost Conspiracy! But I just started a Face like Glass.
Yes! That’s exactly how I felt about that one, too. I started it warily because it’s SO LONG but soon felt like it could go on forever and I’d be perfectly content to keep reading it.
A Corner of White looks so good. Great post!
Thank you! I really love that whole series. I could really stand to re-read it, too, now that you mention it. 🙂